The French New Wave was all about breaking new ground, but more importantly, using what was within your immediate resources, but most importantly, about realizing that those two things inevitably lead to each other, and you should just be yourself, because you're cool enough to be in a movie! Among the most important of the French New Wave's contributions to the collective conscious of modern film was the destruction, deflowering, and overall erosion of the 180º axis.
The 180º axis was the unbreakable Kaaba of traditional film making. It's a pretty simple concept, that the view of the camera was a 180º view, or, like looking at the broad side of a straight line. To this day, film students everywhere toil tirelessly to learn the proper manipulation of this angle. But the French New Wavers' noted that this is only a realistic perspective if no one anywhere ever moves their head (which of course is not true, making way for an ocean of “turn your head and cough” jokes). So, in a surprisingly revolutionary move, they began using shots that not only rotated in full circle on their stationary point, but went infinitely into geometric chaos by moving from its single vantage and tracking the subject. (Note: it took 10 years of calculus to decode the cinematography of Breathless).
At the time, this bold move was seen as an unholy sacrilege to the film gods. But, in the spirit of the movement, no one seemed to give a damn.
The French New Wave was all about breaking new ground, but more importantly, using what was within your immediate resources, but most importantly, about realizing that those two things inevitably lead to each other, and you should just be yourself, because you're cool enough to be in a movie! Among the most important of the French New Wave's contributions to the collective conscious of modern film was the destruction, deflowering, and overall erosion of the 180º axis.
The 180º axis was the unbreakable Kaaba of traditional film making. It's a pretty simple concept, that the view of the camera was a 180º view, or, like looking at the broad side of a straight line. To this day, film students everywhere toil tirelessly to learn the proper manipulation of this angle. But the French New Wavers' noted that this is only a realistic perspective if no one anywhere ever moves their head (which of course is not true, making way for an ocean of “turn your head and cough” jokes). So, in a surprisingly revolutionary move, they began using shots that not only rotated in full circle on their stationary point, but went infinitely into geometric chaos by moving from its single vantage and tracking the subject. (Note: it took 10 years of calculus to decode the cinematography of Breathless).
At the time, this bold move was seen as an unholy sacrilege to the film gods. But, in the spirit of the movement, no one seemed to give a damn.